HD 9999 1 C.C72. A3 N5 i B 897,926 Behind the Scenes in Candy Factories 'lIli.'lld —.l ra-ch, 1, -' The Consumers' League of New York 289 FOUR'1'I AVENUE NEIw YORK CITY 212^ D -,, ^c~iS^~ I 11 F I. I f I ", Thzis study is the seconid of thzose made possible by the A 1lice Day Jackson Fund as a memorial to Mrs. Jackson's work during her five years as President of the Consumers' League of New York, 1921 to 1920. 'AI It.,~ j 1 3t Thte Clocolate Dipper By Ewing Gallowa, N. aovay, -v. Y. FOREWORD THE manager of one of the city's largest candy factories remarked during the course of this investigation, "The less the public knows about candy making the better." It has been the function of the Consumers' League of New York during the thirty-seven years of its existence to acquaint the consuming public with the conditions under which the things they eat, wear and use are made and sold. This candy study was made for that purpose. The candy industry in New York City was chosen for this investigation because of the fact that in the five great women employing industries studied by the New York State Bureau of Women in Industry in 1923 (Bulletin 121, Department of Labor), the women candy-makers had the lowest scale of earnings. There is at this time a wide-spread belief that any willing worker, even though a woman and unskilled, can, if she will, earn enough to support herself in health and decency. The current acceptance of this is probably due to a superficial comparison of today's wage scales with the "sweated-wage" of twenty years ago which shows a considerable increase even for the unskilled worker. A comparison of cost-of-living figures, however, and a consideration of the long periods of unemployment or partial employment in seasonal industries, shows that many women in the City of New York earn less than the wage computed by the most conservative organizations as a fair minimum. That the majority of these low-wage workers are young girls who live at home with their families and are partially supported by those families, explains but does not alter this fact. Very often they come from families of unskilled laborers where there is no legitimate margin with which to carry them. Nevertheless, this reportis not offered primarily as a wage study because the Consumers' League, being an unofficial PAGE FIVE organization, has no power to demand access to payrolls. The wage problem is covered, however, both through the personal experience of the investigators, and by the findings of the State Department of Labor taken from actual payrolls. While only twenty-five candy factories in New York City were actually worked in by the investigators, an attempt was made to cover a typical cross-section of the industry, from the little loft factory in the dirty side street turning out the cheapest grade of lollipop, to the large model daylight factory whose products are nationally advertised. That some of the best as well as some of the worst examples in the industry were missed, is quite possible. That the investigator, and those who assisted her, working as beginners for the most part, came in contact with the unskilled and badly paid section of the workers, is also true. But this unskilled group is the largest and most representative class of candy workers and information gained by this working contact was supplemented by interviews with more highly skilled workers, with employers and managers. While wages are perhaps the most vital of statistics to the woman candy maker, sanitation focuses the attention of the consumer of candy. Do the conditions under which candy is made also approach a reasonable "health and decency standard"? Can such a standard both of working conditions and sanitation, be maintained without imposing too great a financial burden on the industry or the community? The answer seems to be that it can since even among the limited number studied a few plants have achieved these requirements. The following study is presented as a picture of a lowwage industry in relation to the women who do its work and to the public who consumes its product. -FRANCES PERKINS. PAGE SIX A WEEK IN A CANDY FACTORY.* Long before eight the line of job-hunters began gathering at..........'s in answer to the advertisement for both experienced and inexperienced candy workers. The middle-aged women were the first to arrive and the most determined. There were no benches or chairs, so we stood about, first on one foot, then on the other, or tried to edge around near the wall so we could lean against it. Within half an hour there were sixty or seventy women crowded into the tiny hall. Latecomers, those arriving after 8:30, were not able to get inside. Most of the girls were young, in their early teens, it seemed, but the few older ones were around fifty. Italian girls predominated with a scattering of Polish and Irish. Two girls were Porto Rican and spoke no word of English. One of them was strikingly beautiful. Among the older women was one I had met the week before looking for another job. She was in her fifties and unmarried and she told me she was being turned down everywhere because of her age. She was a pale, frail little thing. Later when she got turned down again, and I left her at the door, she was headed toward the........ Biscuit Co. on the trail of a rumor picked up in the lobby. At 9:30, we were sent upstairs by the watchman and here the personnel manager interviewed us singly. The older women were turned aside with the assurance, "I am sure you wouldn't want this kind of work. We need strong, young girls to run back and forth." After they had left fifteen of us were hired for all kinds of work. We had to fill out application blanks, quite a job for the slower girls, and those that finished first were hired. A team of five of us was put to work in the "Art Department" under a hard-boiled Irish forelady. I soon found she was hated by both porters and girls and reviling her was their chief pastime. * This story of a candy worker's week is printed here because it presents in human terms the essence of facts contained in the report itself. PAGE SEVEN The girl in charge of our table was a thin little Italian with paper-white face and large eyes. She hated her job and was continually wishing she was married. She had been here two years, had started at $14 a week and had never been increased. The only promotion, she said, was to be put on piece work. A woman wrapper at a near-by table was working on piece. Her hands flew so fast one could scarcely see them. Her face was strained and tense, her eyes never left her boxes and paper. I asked how much she could average. "About $18 a week at this season," she replied without looking up. But she didn't do piece work all the time, the little Italian said. She was getting "too many shakes," in her wrapping. The smallest girl on the new team, though not the youngest, was 19. She had been married a year but had left her husband and was now living at home. She would tell us long, sad tales of her married life. About 11 o'clock I went to the dressing room to wash my hands. The place was fairly clean, although the odor was bad and on the walls were signs informing the girls that they must wash their hands after using the toilets. I looked about for soap and towels. The little liquid soap bowls were all empty and there were no towels in sight. "How do you wipe your hands?" I asked. "On toilet paper, or on your shimmy, if you like," answered one girl. The other girls in the place walked out without the formality of washing. Our department was called the Ice Box. The temperature was a little above 50~ and although most of the girls wore sweaters, they shivered at their work. The girls who tied and wrapped were permitted to sit on iron stools. But the cold from the floor crept up the metal and helped in the chilling process. Many of the girls had very bad colds. Two young Jewish girls who worked with us got disgusted at the cold and bored with the monotony of the work. We were tying a piece of tin-foiled candy to the leg of a chocolate turkey PAGE EIGHT with a piece of yellow ribbon. After one of the forelady's harangues they decided to quit at once and went to tell her so. An argument followed in which the forelady's voice rose loud and shrill. "Go to hell, you old cat," shouted one of the girls and the two departed. The three of us who were left at the table were much impressed by this show of independence. Jessie, the little Italian, told infamous stories about the forelady but when she appeared we all bent over our work and did not reply to her abuse. At the 45-minute lunch period the girls retired to the cloak room on the same floor with the lunches they had brought from home. A stock room girl made coffee and sold it at three cents a cup. A few of us who had not brought lunch this first day slipped across the street to a lunch counter where we could get a bowl of soup or a sandwich for ten cents. The place was full of workmen and the air thick with frying grease but it was the only restaurant in the neighborhood. "Some of the factories have swell lunch rooms and serve you tea or coffee and sugar free," one youngster informed me. "But even at that, this is the best place I've worked in. Not so much overtime and they don't speed you so. I worked at........ a year for $12 a week-a rotten dump, too. Here they start you at $14. I suppose they keep you there forever, too." The next day was a holiday-election day-for which we would not be paid. On Wednesday, the turkey tying was resumed for the morning. Then in the afternoon, we did bulk packing, scooping up handfuls of hard candies from the trays into one pound boxes, closing them, weighing them on a little scale and then stacking them for wrapping. The hours dragged slowly. Between four and five the strain of standing became almost unbearable. We shifted from one foot to the other, trying to lean against the table occasionally for rest. By a quarter past five we were dull and speechless with fa PAGE NINE tigue. I turned to Jessie, "I'm all in. Do you get used to it so you don't mind it any more?" She replied. "I don't. Some of the girls don't seem to mind it, except when they're sick, but it sure gets me toward the end of the day." On Thursday, I was sent to the next floor to work on a belt. It conveyed small pieces of hard candy from a cylinder to a table where it was spread out and cooled under three air-ducts. We pushed the candies back from the belt as they fell off and spread them over the table. After they dried we packed them in tin cans and stacked them away. The Italian woman with whom I worked said that almost every day a new girl was sent up to help her. "They don't stay. They quit. It's too hard for them." I too, wanted to quit when the day was over. My palms were punctured full of holes from the sharp edges of the candy and my back ached from carrying the trays of tins and from bending over the too-low table. On Friday I was glad to be put at a different job-fancy packing. Another small Italian girl-she looked a mere child -was my working partner. I asked her if she was just out of school and she replied that she had been married three years and had had a child that was born dead. She spoke with bitterness of her husband's attitude toward her work. He thought it "just play" and that she shouldn't be tired at night. "My God! Tired! I just want to flop when I get home and instead I've got to get dinner." We stood all day at this job, walking up and down the sides of the tables, each sticking a different kind of chocolate in each box. The girl in charge of this table was irritable all the time. "What's the matter with May?" I asked my partner. "Oh, don't mind her," was the reply. "You'd be mad too, if you had to look after all these new girls and didn't get any more than she does. She's been here five years and she's PAGE TEN only making $15 a week. She hasn't any parents and has to keep herself on it." "Why doesn't she leave and go some other place?" "Yeh, and start in at $12 a week all over again. Each place you go to you get taken on as a new girl. The dippers are the only ones in this business that can make a living. Some of the speedy piece workers make good money at this time of the year, but they lose out in the summer when things are slack. I'd rather be on regular pay and this place ain't so bad. Say, you should see some of the factories I've worked in! This is a Paradise, you'd say." On Saturday morning, the whole atmosphere of the place was different. The knowledge that 12:15 ended the day's work lightened all tension. When the bell rang, we rushed upstairs to the bookkeeper's window and lined up. Three day's pay is always held back but as I was leaving I got my full week. As the girls dressed to go home they grumbled about reductions for lateness, time lost, or mistakes they claimed were made in their rates. One girl said she never could figure out how she was paid but just took what she got and said nothing. I opened my envelope to see what had happened to me. I was disappointed. The enforced holiday of election day and the time lost on the morning of employment had in some way cut my prospective $14 a week to $10.40. PAGE ELEVEN METHOD OF INVESTIGATION. The work of this investigation was done during the Spring and Autumn of 1927, so that part of the pre-Easter and all of the pre-Christmas peak seasons were covered. An attempt made to gather some material from up-state sources was unsuccessful due to the lateness of the season. The material presented here was obtained in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island City. As New York City is the center of the candy-making industry of the state, if not of the nation, we believe that the conditions described are, with the exception of wage scales, representative of the state. Wages in upstate factories average, in 1927, over $2 a week less than in New York City, according to the figures of the New York State Bureau of Statistics and Information. Three methods of securing material were used: 1-Interviews with factory managers or employers and official visits to the factory. 2-Inside investigation as workers in the factory. 3-Interviews with candy workers outside the factory wherever they could be reached. During the Spring of 1927, letters were sent to the managers of twelve large representative firms, telling them of the work contemplated and asking for interviews and for permission to visit their plants. Six out of the twelve replied. Of these, five expressed their willingness to comply with both requests and were most courteous and co-operative. One granted an interview but refused to permit a view of the factory. At the end of the investigation, two more factories, in which the investigator had already worked, were officially visited with the permission of the management. The investigator also interviewed the President of the National Confectioners' Association in relation to seasonal em PAGE TWELVE ployment in the industry and the City Health Commissioner on the enforcement of sanitary regulations. The bulk of the information presented herein in regard to actual working conditions was obtained from direct observation and work in the factory itself. Because of the difficulty in reaching the candy worker outside the factory, there was no other way in which the industry could be observed from the point of view of the worker. This opinion was endorsed by two progressive employers. When the investigator took a job in answer to an advertisement, neither the employer nor the girls with whom she worked knew who she was or what she was doing. The factory was not cleaned up for the occasion nor was the worker conscious of being "investigated." The investigator and the assistants who helped her during the last six weeks of the study worked from one day to one week in each factory, depending upon the size and type of place and the opportunity for gathering information. While the choice of job had to be governed to some extent by chance, the fact that practically all candy factories enlarge their working forces from 20 to 50%o during the rush season made it possible to cover a representative group. Of the 25 factories in which jobs were obtained, 6 employed from 200 to 800 women; 11 employed from 50 to 200; 8 from 12 to 50. These figures are approximate. One section of the candy-making industry could not be included-the very small, cheap kitchen factory, attached to a store or a small group of chain stores, employing two or three workers beside the owner and his family. They are usually housed in the basement or backroom of the store and display their fly-specked bulk candy in the store's window. These are probably the greatest sanitary offenders in the whole industry, but any unofficial investigation of them is impossible. As might be expected of such low-paid workers, almost all of the candy workers live at home and have few organiza PAGE THIRTEEN tion contacts. Of the 85 girls interviewed in the course of the study, only six were reached through Y. W. C. A. industrial groups, four through a girl's home and three through personal introduction. All other interviews were obtained while working in the factory, during the lunch hour and while waiting with groups of applicants in outer offices to be interviewed for jobs. PAGE FOURTEEN RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CANDY INDUSTRY. During the last twelve years, the candy industry has undergone a tremendous development-a growth which has been frequently attributed to the Prohibition -Amendment.% According to the figures of the Department of Commerce, the American public, in 1925, consumed $248,883,257 worth of manufactured candy. In 1926, a report from 80%o of the nation's candy makers indicate that that consumption had risen to $258,251,562 worth of candy-a $10,000,000 increase in a year. In an interview in the New York Times in November, 1927, a prominent candy manufacturer estimated that the industry would pass the half-billion mark in 1928. With this growing prosperity has come increasing centralization of control, a quantity production at the top and on the other hand, a prolific crop of new, small, highly-specialized factories turning out expensive hand-made candies for the more epicurean taste. In New York City, at least, the centralized control of the bigger factories has been accomplished through the investment of outside capital. Two large tobacco companies, with the profits gained from the public's increased cigarette consumption, have bought up at least five leading candy factories, all of which continue to operate under the old trade names. Two of these factories had previously been noted for the high standard of their product; they had been owned by families who had maintained an intimate interest in the business and a sense of responsibility regarding the output. Regarding any change in the quality of the product under the new "absentee ownership," this study has no information to offer. The consumer must depend upon his sense of taste for such enlightenment. But the experience of the investigators who worked in one of these plants both before and after its absorption, as well as interviews with workers in both of these places, would indicate that.working conditions have deteriorated with PAGE FIFTEEN corporation control and quantity production. In one factory, a decrease in the beginning wage, from $14 to $12 took place. Nor is there any indication that this investment by large outside interests makes for better equipment in the factory itself. One of the largest of the companies so controlled has an obviously inadequate staff of porters and is still housed in an ancient building which no amount of effort could keep really clean. The investigator was being shown through this plant by the obliging young manager. She noted the primitive, hit or miss seating arrangements-a kitchen chair there, a low stool surmounted by a box, here, and finally five really model seats. When she asked why these model seats were not in more general use, the young man replied: "We will probably get them in time but they are very expensive. We can't afford to put them in, all at once." This factory is owned by one of the richest of our national corporations. At the opposite pole of the candy industry are the small, high-grade places mentioned before. Sometimes they are started by women who have taken "candy courses." A surprising number have succeeded in finding a market for their products at very good prices. In one case, the owner of such a place was a hotel owner who had formerly made candy for a few special customers in his hotel kitchen and had then found that the growing demand for fine quality candy justified the establishment of a separate factory. Maintaining the same high standard set in his own kitchen several years ago, he now employs seventy workers and maintains the most model candy factory found in the investigation. Caught between this new quantity production of the big, advertising confectioner, catering to the popular taste through chain stores, cigar stands and department stores and the "class production" of a few quality manufacturers, the smaller factory owner, selling in bulk to the retailer, complains that he is being eliminated. Several manufacturers employing from PAGE SIXTEEN fifty to a hundred girls, declared that they cannot compete with the new sales policies and advertising methods of those large firms which sell a standardized, low-priced product direct to the public. A representative of one of the biggest candy firms in New York City declared on the other hand, that the present speedy centralization in the industry was raising standards and making for greater stability of employment. There is no indication as yet that these claims are justified. PAGE SEVENTEEN THE CANDY FACTORY. The twenty-five factories covered in the investigation represent four typical groups: 1-Large plants with well-known trade names selling their own brands of plain and fancy candies direct to the public through their own chain stores, cigar stores, drug stores, etc. 2-Large plants which manufacture nationally advertised brands of machine-made candies, such as chocolate bars, wafers, mints, etc., selling for five or ten cents; also wholesale supplies to jobbers and retailers. Employment in such places is less seasonal than in the first group. 3-The small high-class plants making expensive mixed candies. The work is almost exclusively hand-work and as a rule good working conditions prevail. 4-The small, cheap factory manufacturing bulk candy for the retail trade. This type is frequently dirty and unsanitary, its product unfit for consumption. Processes. About sixty-one per cent. of all the workers in the candy industry are women. In 1923, there were 6,000 of them in New York City. They perform practically all of the operations except the actual making of the candy. Men do the cooking and men are also employed in the "hot rooms" where the gum candies are dried. The chocolate dipper is the aristocrat of the candy trade. She is the best paid woman worker in the industry and her work requires a high degree of skill. During the peak season a dipper can average $35 and $40 a week. She sits at a table which holds containers of melted chocolate. With one hand she tosses the center or fondant into the chocolate, with the other PAGE EIGHTEEN she twirls it about in the soft mixture, then makes a deft distinguishing mark or circle on the top. One hand is constantly coated with chocolate. She sits all day in an atmosphere varying from 55 to 65 degrees. The bon-bon dipper requires less manual skill. She dips the center in its creamed coating and twirls it about with a fork. Her hands are not coated and she can move about when she gets her supplies. The temperature in her section is normal. Machine dipping or enrobing for hard-centered and for the less expensive grades of chocolates is becoming more common. If the machines are kept clean, it is also more sanitary. One group of girls feeds the candy centers onto the belt which carries them through the chocolate bath and through a cooling duct which sets the chocolate. On the other side of the machine, another group separates the candies which stick together and packs them in boxes. Where a "hand-dipped" appearance is desired on fancy chocolates, the candy on leaving the enrober passes on a belt between two rows of girls who mark the top of each piece with a chocolate stroke as it passes. These girls are the strokers. They sit all day, making the same monotonous gesture. The temperature in the enrobing room is always above normal, sometimes as high as 85 degrees. In smaller places where up-to-date ventilating systems have not been installed, the air is often stagnant and depressing. Packers form the largest percentage of workers in the trade. One representative factory had 216 packers (general and belt packing); 50 dippers; 53 miscellaneous workers (peeling, decorating, nut shelling, etc.). The packer also ties and wraps at intervals. Her work is the most unskilled, the most irregular and poorly paid. The simplest operation is bulk packing. In this the candy handled is all of one type. The investigator's first job consisted of scooping up in both hands, small candy Easter Eggs and pouring them into one pound boxes that were then stacked at the end of the table for wrapping. PAGE NINETEEN Fancy packing may be of two kinds-spread packing at a long table or belt packing from a moving belt. These are the processes by which mixed candies are packed. In spread packing the worker moves along the table, takes each piece of candy from a tray in front of her and after sliding it into its paper cup, puts it in its proper place in the box. She packs after a certain pattern and in the more expensive candies, the strokes must be in the same direction, the candies uniform in size. Spread packing would seem to be the only process at which a sitting posture is not practicable, though even here, the outlay of sufficient capital to provide seats with rollers that would move along a groove in the floor, might solve this problem. Some of the larger factories have installed belt carriers in their packing departments. The belt with the empty boxes moves between two rows of girls. As it moves along, each girl contributes a piece of candy (sometimes 2 or 3 pieces) in its fluted cup, to its proper place in the box. It was in belt packing that the investigator was initiated into the art of "sliding cups." The practice was commonly employed in all types of fancy packing. "You hold the pile of cups like this between your thumb and forefinger," explained the girl in charge. "They stick together as a rule, so you lick your middle finger like this, slide out the bottom one and put the candy in it." "Can't you have a sponge or something to wet your finger?" "It'd take too long. Just lick your finger and the cup will come off." Theoretically, the wet finger of the worker touches only the bottom of the paper cup, but actually, as the box gets fuller, in order to squeeze one's candy into its proper place on the swiftly moving belt, one's moistened fingers come in contact with half the candy in the tray. The novice who atPAGE TWENTY tempts to keep her middle finger away from the candy soon finds that she can't keep up with the belt. Fatigue and the Belt. In some factories, stools of sufficient height are provided so that the belt packer can sit at her work; in others, even the belt packer must stand. There is no practical reason why she should do so, unless the belt rotates so quickly that she must be on her toes to keep up with it. During September, the investigator worked on the belt in one of the city's largest factories. The forelady pushed the button which started it going and the girls' fingers began to fly between the wooden trays and the moving boxes. The belt gained speed with each minute and with the increased speed the girls gradually arose from their seats to keep up with it. Occasionally the machinery would stop because the examiner at the end of the line would find too many mistakes, or because the boys were late in bringing up supplies. Each time the belt stopped, amid the imprecations of the forelady who was evidently being pushed from above for "production," the girls would slump back in their seats with sighs of relief and relaxation. Then the switch was pressed again and they bent forward. By four o'clock the newer girls began to complain that they ached all over. During the Christmas rush season, these packers worked until nine in the evening. The effect of these overtime hours will be discussed later in the report. PAGE TWENTY-ONE GETTING A JOB. "What kind of work are you looking for?" "Any experience?" "All right. We start at $12 a week. Write your name and address on here." This was the typical interview preceding a job in a candy factory. Seven of the factories in which work was obtained had employment managers who required the filling out of a blank containing a few more questions and a slightly fuller verbal interview. In three factories of the smaller, cheaper type not even the name and address of the applicant were taken until she had worked two or three days and the payroll was being made out. In the meantime, she was addressed as "You there." Jobs in candy factories are obtained either through advertisements or by "calling around" at the various factories during the rush season. Practically all of the bigger factories advertise for help during the pre-Easter and pre-Christmas seasons. Fifteen out of the 25 jobs secured during the investigation were advertised in the newspapers.. The other ten were secured by making the rounds. Waiting in the lobby to be interviewed, one picks up rumors of other opportunities. "Blanks aren't advertising any, but they're taking on a few girls. I'll go around there if I'm turned down here." "A friend of mine got in at.....in Long Island City last week. It's not a bad place, but the trip isn't worth it. I'd rather make less in town." The Peak Seasons. During September the average factory seems to take on almost anyone who applies, regardless of experience. The enormous turnover makes it necessary to have a few more PAGE TWENTY-TWO girls on hand than are actually needed. But by November jobs are hard to find. The girls stop "shopping around" from one place to another. A hundred applicants may answer one ad for ten candy packers. The more experienced girls are taken, the others turned away. Of the two peak seasons in the industry, the smaller one is the pre-Easter rush during February and March. After Easter and particularly after "Mother's Day," which has extended the employment season to some extent during the last few years, comes the big lay-off. The more experienced and skilled help is kept on, particularly the dippers. One factory guarantees its dippers $22 a week during the summer in order to hold them. Some of the other workers are put on part time; the rest are laid off. By the first of September the big peak begins and lasts until Christmas. This is the period of greatest employment and of much overtime. Women who have been out of work all summer or who have worked in the country resorts drift into the candy factory. Regular candy workers, laid off the season before, come back for their old jobs. In all but a few places, methods of hiring during this season are chaotic and unintelligent. The Sanitary Code requiring a medical examination on entry or else a "food handler's card" certifying that the applicant had been examined within a year, was enforced in only three of the twenty-five factories. (Medical inspection will be discussed in a later section.) In two factories where the work consisted largely of spread packing, each girl was asked whether or not she felt able to stand on her feet all day as the work required. In the other 23 factories this question was not raised. Working at a table with a team of new girls one hears the gossip of the various factories which the girls have "tried out" or heard about. PAGE TWENTY-THREE "Tomorrow, I'm going over to......... I got a girl friend there and she says she can make $18 a week on piece. And you get a chance to sit down once in a while." "Maybe they ain't taking on anyone and you'll lose out here." "No danger. They need girls in this place and I'll say I was sick if I have to come back." Another girl contributes. "You can make good money at Blank and Blanks, but I wouldn't work there. The forelady's a slave-driver and you work about 70 hours a week with overtime. They pay time and a half but it ain't worth it. Life's too short." The investigator later found this estimate of Blank and Blank to be quite correct. This shopping around for the best hours and wages while the rush is on, undoubtedly accounts for much of the tremendous turnover during the peak season. The employment manager of one large factory admitted a turnover of 300 and 400%o during this season and a lay-off of 407%o in the summer. As this factory pays a low beginning wage, this turnover figure is probably larger than for other plants of the same size. As the season progresses and jobs, especially for the unskilled, become scarcer, the girls stick to what they have, while employment offices are still besieged by applicants. Superintendents and employment managers become more independent as the workers grow less so. Some Employment Methods. In one large factory late in the season, an advertisement for 20 packers brought a crowd of more than a hundred women to the factory door by eight o'clock. They waited in the vestibule PACE TWENTY-FOUR and on the outside stairs until nearly ten for the manager to appear. When he finally arrived, he ordered all the girls to the stairs. At intervals of about 20 minutes a new girl was called into the office. Between interviews he attended to other matters. At one-thirty in the afternoon, after six girls had been employed, he came out and. announced to the still waiting crowd that "no more girls will be taken on today. Come back tomorrow." The bolder spirits among the tired applicants greeted the announcement with indignation and some profanity. One girl shook her fist in his face. The crowd disappeared gradually, grumbling and resentful of the wasted morning. At another factory a crowd of 60 women waited in the dark hallway of a loft for the owner who had advertised for "candy packers." Stepping out of the elevator at nine o'clock he greeted the assemblage with surprised good-nature. "My Gawd! The Big Parade!" Then he continued. "I want just two very fast packers. Those that ain't fast and experienced can beat it." "Why didn't you say so in your ad?" shouted one irate worker. All but six of the crowd melted away. These methods were not typical of all the factories where the investigators applied for work. In at least half of them, the treatment of the girls, though hurried and perfunctory, was considerate and courteous, particularly where the hiring was done by a forelady or by a regular employment manager. In three places, the forelady in charge, needing no help herself, recommended places where she thought jobs might be secured. But in only three factories was there anything approximating a genuine interview or an attempt to fit the worker to the job best adapted to her. In all other cases, the hiring was done in the most casual manner. In a few months, many of those taken on would be fired in the same casual manner. Knowing this, these casual workers took little inter PAGE TWENTY-FIVE est in their jobs and cared less about the maintenance of sanitary standards. Only in a few of the better-class places was there any "pride of work" among these young floaters, but on the other hand one found a general conviction that "candy's a rotten job, in which you never know what you're going to make or how long you'll be working." PAGE TWENTY-SIX THE CANDY WORKER. Ages. The candy trade is primarily an unskilled trade, employing young, inexperienced workers. While no recent figures on ages of the various groups of candy workers are available, at the time of the last census, three-fifths of the candy workers were under 21. It is unlikely that any great change has taken place since that time. Among the wrappers, tyers, strokers and packers particularly, the girl under 21 predominates. The hand dippers and bon-bon dippers belong as a rule to an older group, between 20 and 30. Of the 85 candy workers of all kinds interviewed during the course of this study, 48 were between 16 and 20, inclusive; 25 between 21 and 30; 12 were over 30. The "over 30" group in a candy factory are most likely to be women between 40 and 50 or older. Women as old as 60 may be seen in some of the factories shelling nuts, pitting dates, and doing other odd jobs. The girl, too young to have acquired much skill or independence, the older woman left on her own resources without a trade and unable to do the heavy work of a charwoman, gravitate to the candy factory where all the skill required can be achieved within a few days. These older women do not as a rule work beside the young and more vigorous packers. Their's are the jobs in which speed is not an essential factor. In one factory, however, in which the investigator worked as a packer, a little old lady of at least 65, worked a few feet away as a wrapper. She was tiny and frail, with fine, wizened features-so thin as to be almost transparent. "She could never hang on as a piece worker," confided a young Italian packer. "The girls all help her with her work and the boss is sorry for her I guess. If she loses this job, she'll never get another one." PAGE TWENTY-SEVEN Nationalities. The Italian and Italian-American girl predominated in all of the large factories, with a smaller group of Irish-Americans. During the last few years there has been an influx of Porto Rican workers (both men and women) into the industry. The Italian and other groups are apt to look upon these new Spanish-speaking workers with something of the same contempt and uneasiness with which the native Nordic worker looked upon the Italians a generation or two ago. "They work for almost nothing and do the decent workers out of jobs," complained one candy packer. "They live crowded together in one room and think that it's grand because it's better than they are used to, where they came from." In some factories one finds a few Jewish girls and in a few, smaller better-class places, a sprinkling of German and Swiss girls. But the Italian is the backbone of the trade. Four out of the 25 factories covered hired a few colored girls. In one, where candied fruits and stuffed dates were packed, about half the workers were colored, the rest Porto Ricans and Italian. Background. Seventy-four out of the 85 girls interviewed lived at home with parents or other relatives; six were married and lived with their husbands; only five "lived out"-four of these in a club where they paid $5 or $6 a week for room and board; the other, a more skilled worker, in a regular boarding house where she paid $10 a week for the same. This girl earned $15 a week in one of the better factories and claimed that she could not "make both ends meet" at this rate. One out of the six employment managers officially interviewed by the investigator admitted that he would take only girls who lived with their families. As he naively put it, "No PAGE TWENTY-EIGHT girl can live on $12 a week unless she lives at home. I won't take them on unless they say they live at home." Other owners and managers interviewed expressed a preference for the "home girl" who could fall back on her family's support during the slack season, but declared that they would not refuse to hire a girl who lived away from home. Out of the 25 factories in which work was obtained, only five asked any questions about the worker's background. But there is a general conviction among the young candy workers that it is best to say one lives at home. All but three of the girls living at home, with whom the investigators talked, contributed most or all of their earnings to the family income. A few gave regular amounts for their board and room-$7, $8 or $10 a week, and kept the rest for carfare and lunches. A majority handed over their pay envelopes intact to their mothers, who gave them back what was necessary for incidental expenses. During the slack season when so many workers are either laid off or put on part time, the family expense account is shaved down to meet the added burden of their support. It is obvious under these circumstances that the family really subsidizes the girl so that she can afford to work in a candy factory. Three chocolate and bon-bon dippers were the sole support of their mothers. All of these three had been in the candy trade over eight years and were earning from $25 to $35 a week during the busy season. It is the hope of getting into this better paid and more steadily employed group that keeps many of the candy workers in the trade. With the exception of a few girls who were studying stenography at night schools, and the large group that wanted to get married and stop working altogether, just as soon as possible, many of the girls explained that it was this chance of getting into "dipping" and making decent wages that kept them from deserting to such cleaner jobs as radio assembling, etc. PAGE TWENTY-NINE WAGES IN THE CANDY INDUSTRY. Time and Piece Payments. All but 5 of the 25 factories studied paid wages on both a time and piece basis, depending upon the operation and the experience of the worker. Four of the 5 factories which paid on a time basis exclusively manufactured a high-priced, quality product in which care in packing and handling were essential. "Quality and the piece system won't go together," said the manager of one of these factories. "You can't place a premium on speed and expect a girl to do good work." However, the one other factory which paid by the week was a small, dirty place on the East Side which manufactured peanut brittle and other nut candies. The reason for time payment in such a place could not be discovered. A majority of the candy factories start their workers on a weekly wage, usually of $12, and then advance them to the piece system when they have gained sufficient speed to make this more profitable. The time payment period may last from two weeks to two months, but as a rule, the girl who cannot pack or wrap the minimum piece requirement at the end of a few weeks is let out. In many of the operations, however, such as stroking, belt packing and attending the enrobing machine, weekly or hourly rates are necessary. Or, a girl may work at spread packing one week on a piece basis and at the belt next week on a time basis. In several factories, a "time and bonus" system of payment has been inaugurated. One of the largest and best of the New York City factories which for many years had paid on a time basis exclusively, has lately become converted to a method of this type, known as the Bedeaux System. Because it is likely that the system will gain further converts among candy manufacturers, the following statement of the candy worker's attitude toward it, is quoted from an investigator's report: PAGE THIRTY "Started work as a spread packer at $14.59 a week. There are no seats at spread packing. Hours are 85; 45 minutes for lunch. Tuesdays and Thursdays we work until six. The Bedeaux Efficiency System is being introduced. Stop watches are used to get the girls' rate of speed. We are supposed to do a spread of 60 boxes in 2 hours, at a base rate of 31 cents an hour. For all boxes packed over that spread, we are paid a bonus of four different rates, increasing with the number of boxes packed. The limit is $20.80. The girls don't understand the system and resent it. They grumble that they are being cheated. The foreman says, 'If I explained it to you, you wouldn't understand it anyway, so there's no use wasting time." Information on earnings are posted each day after our names and the girls resent this too. On Monday, only seven out of the 34 girls in my department had earned additional rates, ranging from 5 cents to 80 cents. Turnover is evidently increasing. Sixteen girls left this week. One girl said, 'The day I worked the hardest, I earned the least.' " Another factory manufacturing five cent candy rolls employs a different type of bonus system. As an Italian worker describes the process: "We pack 260 boxes a day for the boss. Then we get a bonus on the rest we pack. I've packed 400 boxes a day in the rush season, 120 pieces to a box. I can earn as much as $18 a week at this rate, but it don't last, of course. During the slack season when things are slow or when the machine breaks down and we have to wait around, I don't make more than $7.00 a week on part time. I've been in the trade seven years." PAGE THIRTY-ONE Another girl who has been in the same factory for over two years says that she averages $13 a week when she works "regular." But during the summer months, she averages $6.80 a week for three days' work. The Beginning Wage. Thirteen out of the 25 factories studied paid a beginning wage of $12 a week; three paid $13 and $13.50 a week; nine paid $14 to $15, the latter rate being paid by only two firms. Even this small beginning wage, however, is not always what it seems. In one factory where an investigator worked for $14 a week, her actual earnings amounted to $10.50 because of time lost through a holiday and for other reasons beyond her control. One morning the belt at which she worked broke down and the girls were sent home for the day. This breakdown or temporary stoppage of machinery and the consequent loss of time for which the girl is docked, is one of the worst wage abuses in the industry. In many factories in which workers are paid on a piece basis, they must clean the machine each day on their own time. In the smaller factories girls are frequently required to do such janitorial work as sweeping the floors and washing down tables on their own time. The ambitious piece worker frequently curtails her lunch period to make up for the time lost in this manner at the end of the day. That the beginning wage in the candy industry is of greater importance than a similar wage would be in a more stable industry is due to the tremendous turnover of workers and the highly seasonal nature of the work. Each season, large numbers of girls are taken on anew for the more unskilled processes. These girls may have had candy experience in other factories, but as a rule they start at each new factory at the beginning wage. After working in four factories, the investigator applied for work in the remaining plants as an experienced packer. PAGE THIRTY-TWO With the exception of one place in which she was put to work as an examiner at $15 a week, she started in at each new place at the beginning wage. It is impossible to find the average time for which the packer is considered a beginner. The time differed with each factory and with the individual worker. In two of the best factories studied, the new girl was hired for two weeks at $12 a week. If she was found to be capable she was raised to $15 at the end of this time; if incapable of the quality and quantity of the work required, she was dismissed. In another factory in which the beginning wage was $14 and where the manager had promised, "no girl stays at that wage more than a few months," the investigator found a number of girls who had been working over two years and were still making $14. That this was not due to their incompetence was evidenced by the fact that one of these girls was in charge of a table, and was considered a fast worker. That this $12 and $14 "beginner's wage" may be an almost permanent wage for that large section of the candy workers which is laid off each season to begin anew the next in another factory is obvious from the number of girls encountered who had worked for more than a year and were still earning these amounts. Forty-two of the 85 girls interviewed had worked in the trade from 6 months to 2 years and were still earning $14 or less. Twenty-five had worked from 2 to 5 years and were earning less than $17. All but five were laid off or were put on part time during part of the year. Eighty percent of the girls interviewed were packers, but the packers constitute the vast majority of the workers. Turnover. No definite figure could be obtained as to the number of last season's workers who return each year to the same fac PAGE THIRTY-THREE V tory. Only a few plants keep adequate records from which such information could be secured. In those factories in which wages are higher and conditions good, interviews with managers and workers indicated that a large percentage of workers return each year to the same place. In one factory with low wages and inferior standards, generally, 40%o of the workers are laid off during the summer slack season, Which has been reduced to two or three months, by refrigeration processes. Each fall a largely fresh supply of workers is taken on. Its constant advertisements for help during the five months preceding Christmas support the management's admission of a 300 to 400% turnover during this season. Earnings and Seasonal Employment. Actual yearly earnings of women candy workers, particularly of the 33 to 45%o who are laid off altogether during the slack season, could only be ascertained through extensive personal interviews of a large proportion of the workers. The figures on earnings issued by the Bureau of Statistics and Information are obtained primarily as a measure of trends of employment as measured in the number of workers employed and the total payroll reported for a week each month. The average is computed by dividing the weekly payrolls of the reporting factories by the number of employees actually on the payrolls at the time and as an index of changes in the earnings of wage workers month by month, it is useful. In an industry as seasonal as the candy industry, however, average earnings for a given week have little relation to the amount of money earned by the worker during the year and it is upon the yearly income that the worker must depend. The chart shown on page 35 is based upon employment and payroll index figures of the Bureau of Statistics and Information from June, 1923, through December, 1927, and illustrates graphically the seasonal fluctuations. Reaching their PAGE THIRTY-FOUR ............................................... I I L-L I - all.1 m:I I Ia II I II IA I AI, I Ild I-TA 1II I I II IIIIM! 1-1 LJL IL I. 1 A L aI I I II a I I I III A L ol11, All........................ Wi l l. is I )4 r4 0 "4 0 >4 0 CM cr a, e!/,-4 0 C: O4 O. @a 4) 0 0 t4 o